DRE Questionnaire

Training at least every 3 months.

Permanent diocesan director that can help and mentor the new directors.

better/clearer communication

Just started the job so not sure

To understand that our catechists are volunteers, many have jobs and some are retired. Each year we ask more of them and it has made finding and retaining volunteers challenging.

Implement teams of facilitators to deliver formation courses in the deaneries according to their ministry, e.g., extraordinary ministers of communion, marriages, etc., not only in English but also in Spanish.

Please do not make all of the catechists complete the courses from Franciscan at Home. Many are retired or working full time and do not have the time it takes to basically get a masters degree.

I would like to see more communication local with Parish Youth Groups, perhaps collaborating to achieve greater and larger scale community service projects.

menos Descentralizacion y mas cercania, para conocer la realidad de las parroquias de primer mano

How to reach the heart and mind of the students in the process of forming their faith?

I think the biggest improvement would be for the Diocese to trust and support the people who are serving in our parishes every day. We are on the ground every day with our families. We know the people, the situations, and the history behind the decisions we make. When a parent calls the Diocese to complain about us, or a decision that has been made please call us before making a decision or telling us what we need to do. We should at least have the opportunity to explain the situation and provide the information you may not have. It is incredibly discouraging when we are not trusted in these situations or even given the benefit of the doubt. We work hard to serve our parishes and families, and it is frustrating when one phone call to the Diocese can undermine us without anyone first asking us why we enforce the rules we have. We are not asking you to always agree with us. We are asking you to talk to us first. We know our parishes, our families, and the situations we are dealing with every day. A simple phone call before making a decision would go a long way toward showing trust, supporting us, and helping us work together.

This is my first year, I am still learning the job.

Having a Diocesan Director of Catechesis and Faith Formation filled with a person who lasts longer than 2 years would go a long way. Not only was it a revolving door, but having long lengths of time between hires made it even more difficult.

Making sure communications regarding events, policies and initiatives are sent out to the DRE's/CRE's well in advance if possible so that they can be completed and implemented in a timely manner.

A church that is willing to listen—just listen. Perhaps we will not be able to find the answer or solution to all the different challenges each parish, school, or ministry faces, because there are many. But understanding that we are the Body of Christ, and when one member suffers, we all suffer. Knowing that there is a Church there to listen with compassion and to guide us is all we really need sometimes. But perhaps we are too busy—too busy to be the Church. Agendas are overscheduled; priests don't have time for guidance or confessions. We are all too busy to just stop and listen to the member who is hurting, to show love and compassion, or even to notice. We are too booked to be the Church Christ called us to be. Lastly, being welcoming and patient when someone reaches out to the Catholic Center. Reaching out to the Dioceses with questions can be intimidating for many of us because of not very kind or perhaps professional behavior coming from above. We fear "getting in trouble" for asking questions we are "supposed to know" especially when we are new, but isn't that what the Diocesan Curia is there for?

The Diocese should provide clearer, consistent guidelines for parish religious education programs, including OCIA, OCIC, and the new OCIT designation. The current process involves too much red tape, and practices vary by parish and pastor. While some flexibility is appropriate, DREs and CREs need clear diocesan standards to follow. Practicing Catholics who only need Confirmation currently complete the yearlong OCIA program but do not receive the sacrament at the Easter Vigil. Although they are confirmed at Pentecost, a separate preparation program would be more appropriate. They could also be included in the teen Confirmation ceremony, allowing them to receive the sacrament from the Bishop.

Timely and clearer response to questions/issues. Better Communication for DRE/Coordinators. Meetings that are not so far away from Naples/Marco area.

I would like to know what the diocese requires for any and all religious Education classes (books, ages for sacraments, how many years of class before the sacramenta...)

A registration template for Faith Formation with required Diocesan forms for parents to sign - Allowing for some edits like dates, times and fees. It would need a way for people to pay for their fees as well. Thank you! That would be a game-changer!

I feel it would be better if Confirmation was offered to students in the 8th Grade. Many of the High School students are involved in dual enrollment classes, have jobs and are involved heavily in sports, etc. Many parents are in favor of this and ask why the DOV has it start in H.S. The students in the program will hopefully stay with us until 8th grade Confirmation. After that they could participate in a Youth Group.

Having enough volunteers to cover every ccd class. We have ccd clases on two days (Sunday 2 sessions and Monday one session)

Lack of support/ mentorship from the diocese.

engaging families and encouraging them to make faith formation a priority

learning everything from the beginning

Finding and retaining catechists and volunteers for all activities.

That children and parents see the catechesis as a progressive and formative process and not as a sacramental catechesis.

Being only part time and working after hours or on weekends since I teach during the week, I find it difficult to attend many things that are during my work day. Also we have a lot of new staff at our parish and we are still figuring out who does what. Everyone is great at stepping in, but sometimes things get lost in the shuffle.

Diminished support for our Parish Youth Group.

-Falta de presupuesto, somos 3 y solo contamos con una computadora de escritorio no actualizada en la oficina. -Algunos ninos y jovenes no regresan a la catequesis despues de sus sacramentos, -los padres de familia por miedo a ser deportados este curso ha disminuido la asistencia de los alumnos a la catequesis

Through the formation process, to help students learn, grow, and live what had been taught.

One of the biggest challenges in my role is working with such a large number of students. I work with 500 or more students each year between CCD, OCIA, and Youth Ministry. The workload is a lot, and I often work 60-plus hour weeks, but I can handle the workload and I am always looking for ways to make things more efficient and organized so that every year it runs more smoothly. The more difficult challenge for me is dealing with parents who do not want to follow the policies set in place. I understand why there may be misunderstandings with why certain policies are in place and I try my best to communicate those reasons. Having difficult parents or a difficult community is part of the job, and I understand that. Parents are going to disagree with policies, want exceptions for their children, or be unhappy with a decision. Sometimes a parent may even go directly to the Diocese over what may be a minor inconvenience. I can handle those situations. What becomes difficult is when an exception is made without considering the additional work it creates. With over 500 students, I have to have clear policies and apply them fairly to everyone. Every exception means additional communication, follow-up, planning, and time that has to be added to my already full workload. I often have to find that extra time somewhere in a 60-plus hour work week, and that is time I simply cannot afford to keep adding. I don't expect every parent to agree with me, and I know difficult situations are part of ministry. What I need is consistent support from leadership and the Diocese when policies are in place and decisions have been made. That support allows me to manage the programs efficiently, treat families fairly, and focus my time on what is most important for our students.

Locating resources and necessary items to complete assignments and meet deadlines.

Getting more parent volunteerism in various roles and events.

Time. Being able to meet the needs of those who want to deepen their faith and come back to the Church with resources and tools that meet them where they are at and get them to where they want to be or should be.

Isolation.

Trying to keep up with all the paperwork and data entry required by the diocese. If we are truly here to bring souls to Christ, we need to cut down on all the data entry, paperwork, and red tape.

Not having access to clergy that are able to communicate with the large population of particularly Spanish speaking parishioners with many children in Religious Ed that we cannot communicate with because of a language barrier.

Understanding and knowing what each grade level should know (theologically and what prayers), especially for First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

Getting catechists fingerprinted, support from the parents, Sunday Mass attendance

Completing all that I need to do well in a given week- so many pastoral issues in families due to the size of our parish that require special care and time. Preparing and implementing a really good registration system for Faith Formation.

Many of the families do not attend church. Our parish has an older population and I work diligently to keep the program enrollment robust with students.

Everything is fine for now.

How to grow and improve my program.

having a diocesan resource person available for questions and support

as much as I can get

In-person catechist training is challenging for those who work and have to travel across the Diocese. Is there an option to host activities by deanery?

We are in great need of classrooms. Workshops for catechists.

Continued online access to documents, handbooks, policies, etc.

To support the projects in which I would like our Youth Group to participate, i.e Operation Gratitude, Bracelets for Vets, "Thank You Baking" for First Responders and Law Enforcement, Teaching Seder...etc.

-Mantener mas comunicacion, -elavoracion de subsidios o material para realizar, con los alumnos y padres de familia

Always update resources and sharing experiences as a mean to help catechists teach effectively.

Thank you for sending this survey. I think it is a step in the right direction and a good opportunity for those of us working at the parish level to share our experiences. Our community faces many challenges, including homelessness and poverty, and every community has its own unique needs. I think continued communication and understanding between the parish and the Diocese would be very helpful. Having trust in those working directly with the community and its families makes a big difference, especially when difficult situations come up. It would be helpful to have a consistent person in the religious education position to direct our questions to and to be able to communicate consistent issues in our parish and programs to.

Technology, perhaps they can provide laptops, promethean board, etc to make education more accessible.

More spiritual retreats and spiritual enrichment events for DRE's.

Having efficient and viable platforms that support our faith formation efforts in our parishes, knowing who to go to on the Diocesan level to have our questions answered in a timely manner and clear expectations and timetables for Diocesan requests to be completed.

We all have the same mission, different roles but same mission, the salvation of souls. Let's work together as the church of Christ that we are, to meet people where they are at and bring love and compassion to them, right there and then. If you take care of me, I can take care of them. Be open, listen, help me grow spiritually, form me, and remind me of my mission. That's it.

The Department of Education should recognize the significant differences between Catholic school students and those enrolled in parish faith formation programs. Standardized assessments such as ARK are not well suited to the structure or needs of parish religious education and provide limited benefit at the parish level. In addition, many parishes lack the facilities, staffing, and resources required to administer these assessments effectively.

Clearer guidelines on curriculum for each grade.

To have a contact that can help me navigate through what is expected of me, our catechists, our parish, etc. Since we have a small program (around 50 kids) it is a challenge to find programs that our catechist can teach from. Right now, we use Pflaum's and our catechist do not like them and some refuse to use them. If I had a contact that could help me, I'd be extremely appreciative.

To be able to fingerprint on location instead of having our catechists drive far at hours of their work.

A Faith Formation Registration system to include all required Diocesan Forms, editable to meet the needs of an individual parish and allows for online payment. A way the required Safe Environment training to be shared for completion for kids that miss the class and make-up class. Confirmation Dates as soon as possible. Clarification on requirements and other particulars. With a new Bishop now, we really want to understand his preferences - Saint Name guidelines- Can youth pick Saints of the opposite sex, Study guide update, what he really wants the kids to know -Will he ask them all questions- any other preferences he has related to photography during the Mass- is it okay to have a professional photographer? We really need clarity on these so we can be more credible with youth and families and we want to support our new bishop and his preferences.

An open mind regarding the change of Confirmation from H.S. to 8th Grade.

Is this required? Why are we asked to do Initio if we are "required" to use ParishSoft. They seem to do the same stuff.

As of now nothing as just started in this position

Waiting to see if ParishSoft will import into Initio.

Sometimes ParishSoft is difficult to maneuver since my registration also depends on their registering with the parish. Sometimes I know a family is active, but can only access them through inactive. Since we use We Share for registering for Faith Formation, not all of the information is shared within the two programs.

I have just recently been introduced to Parish Soft, and I look forward to implementing it in our Religious Ed program.

It helps keep organized.

We use Parish Soft to keep a complete roster of everyone in CCD, it is the only way to do it and take attendance by hand in each class. I then keep a master copy of the attendance, update it every month, and store it in a Google Sheet for my reference.

In regard to confirmation moving to a younger age. It might be a good idea to build in a requirement that the children have to attend faith formation yearly building up to confirmation. Many children disappear after First Holy Communion and return years later for Confirmation. For education to be beneficial children should be engaged in it yearly and grow on their knowledge as part of their preparation to be mature disciples.

I use ParishSoft and find it very easy to use. There are some things that could be changed or added, but overall, it's a good platform,

One platform would be enough.

I like Parish Soft. It is user friendly and provides what I need for the program.

Not now

Lack of information filtered from the Diocese to the parishes. Lack of collaboration between parishes.

I am excited about the future for our Diocese. While there is a lot that I think we are doing well with respect to faith/morals from our Bishop and Diocesan leadership, there are a few issues I would like to mention that have caused some challenges to our program. Parishes are not schools and we have limited resources and limited time with our students. Adding additional activities that take up 1/2 or full class periods reduces the time spent with families and kids. This is especially difficult in the family catechesis model when there are fewer meeting times per month. Our catechists are not professionals and are often less tech savvy since they are older. Finding younger and specifically male volunteers has been an issue for our parish across the board. Several prospective hires and catechists have had 30 year-old moving violations that kept them from working/volunteering with our parish (their background check won't clear). This isn't making our recruiting any easier, Release of personal information on our catechists without knowing how that information will be used and not notifying the catechists about this is not something our priests support. They would prefer to hear from the Bishop or Department of Education and be consulted about any changes or requests rather than hearing about changes from the DRE. I feel too that DRE's would also like to know about potential changes that affect our relationship with our catechists and be consulted so we can provide feedback on any potential issues. Would it be possible to help parishes in getting the SAFE Environment Training completed by a professional (how do the schools do this?) so that our catechists don't have to speak to the children about their private body parts? Many are uncomfortable and I have ended up having to do the teaching. Our parish would be willing to pay to have someone teach our students if a certified list of trainers could be offered. The new fingerprint/background check is much slower than the previous method used by an independent party. We waited over a month this summer to get a catechist fingerprints approved and dates/times are not conducive for those who work during the day/M-F. Overall it is taking weeks to get someone cleared and often the SAFE Environment is not assigned in a consistent way - we have to contact the Diocese to get this sorted out for each person. Due to current changes, we now have two people at the Diocese we have to coordinate with one for fingerprints and one for SAFE Environment rather than one person. Also, catechists who have expired fingerprints or SAFE Environment are now removed from our current catechist list without notification. It might be best to have them highlighted in another way as the SAFE Coordinator is often not the DRE and doesn't have access to the information.

We need a long term Director of Catechesis and Faith Formation

I prefer Confirmation at High School or Middle School age rather than Elementary age. Thank you for providing this opportunity for feedback and possible changes as needed. I came from the Archdiocese of MSp/St. Paul which is a very large diocese. This year everyone from the diocese has been supportive and understanding to the needs of the parish. Please continue the clear and up to date information!

With regards to the question about the age of a student receiving the sacrament Confirmation. If, in fact, we want these students to "confirm" their own belief and devotion to the Catholic faith, would it be more pragmatic to let them wait until they are mature enough to make that determination for themselves? Too often, when asked why they want to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, a student's response is, "Because my parents want me to." I agree that Family Catechesis is imperative, and that it is more difficult to talk about faith to a teenager, as opposed to a younger student. That being said, perhaps parents can be encouraged to take part in some of the Confirmation classes and Youth Group projects as a way to involve them in their child's spiritual growth. Otherwise, if they receive the sacrament at too young of an age, are they confirming their own Catholic faith, or their parents?

Quisiera expresar mi apoyo y servicio a la direccion Diocesana, para trabajar unidos en bien de la comuidad que necesita de nuestro apoyo y cercania

How to engaged parents in the formation process of their children and the youth.

This generation of high schoolers and middle schoolers is craving Christ, but they all have so much on their minds and in their lives. The Youth Rallies and Youth Ministry have been great in helping them foster their relationship with God. There is so much potential with our Youth, if we keep fostering and helping them grow, they will be great leaders of our faith in their future. Social Media also helps with this

Everything has been going well. Thank you.

Thank you for filling in the gap without having a director in the position. I know its not easy with everything you already have on your plate. It does not go unnoticed and it I greatly appreciate it. Please continue to pray for us, as you are always in our prayers.

As suggested on our recent DRE/CRE Zoom call, I feel having a Diocesan Director of Religious Education is needed but the Diocese should also implement regional (Deanery)representatives to not only support the Diocesan Director in their efforts but to also assist the DRE's/CRE's in the parishes who may need mentoring, assistance especially if they are new to the role. The Diocesan territory is very large to cover and service by one individual effectively and the demographics by Deanery are also different. Having local representation who understands this would be a great help and support to the Diocesan Director of Religious Education.

We appreciate everything you do. We need you and you need us, we are a team, we are the body of Christ. Thank you for everything you do. All the hard work behind the curtains nobody really sees, but you keep our Dioceses running and helps us continue our mission. Thank You.

DREs and CREs serve out of love for the Lord and for the children entrusted to our care—the littlest of saints. We are not motivated by compensation; many serve as volunteers or in part-time roles. Although we do not seek special recognition, occasional opportunities for spiritual renewal, encouragement, and fellowship would help sustain us in this ministry. Priests and deacons have access to retreats, but comparable opportunities are not currently available to DREs and CREs. In addition, because DREs and CREs perform the same essential duties, the Diocese should adopt the consistent title of DRE for all who serve in this role.

There are a couple of CREs/DREs who work full-time jobs and do this as a part-time position. When we are unable to attend meetings scheduled at noon, or in-person meetings held in the morning or evening—especially when the meeting location is more than an hour away—would it be possible to record one of the in-person meetings? Having a recording available would allow those of us who are unable to attend due to circumstances beyond our control to still hear what was discussed, see the presentations, and stay informed about the information shared during the meeting. I think this would be a helpful way to ensure that everyone has access to the same information, even when work schedules or travel distances make attending in person difficult.

-I think a 2 year confirmation program beginning freshmen year is very beneficial to the teens, as they stay involved in the parish and at 16, are able to understand their faith as their own. -The ARK testing is quite an expense, and a lot of extra work and I forgot to do it last year since Lisa left and there wasn't follow up reminders. - I like the catechist Formation of Franciscan at Home, but it was difficult to enforce the training amongst all our busy catechists - the charter bus ride to the Youth Rally is very expensive when 4 buses are needed to get there. - is there a diocesan age and amount of class time for First Communion? - how long do I need to keep the paperwork of past students? I have heard from 7 years to 50 years. Thank you and God bless all the work you do!

We are so blessed and our team at our parish is so supportive and our pastor, Fr. Tom couldn't be more supportive. We really don't want for much and just want to serve. If we had the secret formula to get all our families in church on Sundays, we would do just about anything! We try new things and have a thriving parish community. It is nice to have not too many required meetings, but to touch base on Zoom. We appreciate Jennifer F and Fr. Belmonte and their leadership! Thanks for asking.

I hope we have a DDRE soon. I for one miss having a "go to" person.